Body supported printed surfaces are well known in the prior art, as can be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 956,534; 2,099,295; 2,876,022; 3,215,453; and 3,407,757. All the references cited are characterized by the fact that they are intended to support a surface rigid enough to be suitable for writing thereupon, and are not designed for use where a surface of sufficient rigidity for such purpose would both obtrusively hamper the activity of the user and be a significant hazard to his safety.
With the growth of downhill skiing and cross country skiing as a recreational activity in recent years, ski areas have been increasingly enlarged, particularly in the western mountain region. This enlargement has often times resulted in a single ski are having as many as ten and more individual chair lifts, extending across two or more mountain peaks within a mountain range. It is not unusual for ski areas to have expanded to such an extent that what was originally two and perhaps three ski areas have since become a single vast network covering many miles in horizontal extent, as well as vertical fall. The use of a paper ski area map by carrying it on one's person, usually made available at no cost to the skier by the ski area, began as a convenience to the novice skier and has, as a consequence of the foregoing described growth, become a necessity to both the novice and the expert.
It should also be pointed out that there is a significant danger in a novice skiing without such a map. After taking a wrong or careless turn, a novice is likely to be forced to return by way of an expert trail which will be steeper and more hazardous then he can safely negotiate. Although trails are generally marked as to their difficulty, it is a near physical impossibility, particularly for a novice to climb back along a trail with skis mounted or carrying skis and ski poles to the point at which the wrong turn was taken.
Skiing apparel are generally amply supplied with zippered or otherwise sealable pockets without which ski area maps would be quickly lost or destroyed by moisture and wind. It being a necessity, for the most part, to ski with heavily insulated gloves or mittens in which must be carried a pair of ski poles, stopping to refer to a map to make certain of one's location or the location of a desired trail, becomes a very time consuming and cumbersome maneuver. For the novice it represents an activity which can easily result in losing either a mitten or a ski pole or unnecessarily falling upon one's side in deep snow from which position he typically will have considerable difficulty in extricating himself.
The instant invention was developed specifically as a solution to the hereinabove described problem whereby a skier, either a novice or expert can have instantly available a ski area map for convenient reference without requiring that ski poles be unstrapped from ski mittens, ski mittens be removed from hands, a ski pocket be unzippered, cold hands be required to hold a map for reference, and the reverse sequence of activities be repeated before skiing can be recommenced. It is often desirable to refer to a ski map several times during any one descent of a hill. The ski map holder would both save time and serve to make referral to a map convenient, thus avoiding the frequency of skiing without proper bearings and/or on inappropriate trails.